How do you guys install OS for other friends/clients??

463 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by king_play334, Dec 5, 2009

Brandon H.

Discussion Starter · Dec 4, 2009

I have been fixing many many computers for friends/family lately. When worse comes to worse I back up their stuff and reinstall the OS, but luckly that has only been a few times, and they have all been either Windows XP Pro SP2, or they still had their recovery disk.

But, now that I am getting busy with this, I am sure I will run into many other operating systems. How do yall do it?? There is Windows XP Pro SP1, SP2, and SP3 and Home with their packs, and even Media Center edition. Then all the Vista versions and even Windows 7. On top of that, there are 32 bit and 64 bit.

I am doing this for friends and family cheap, basically helping them out more then anything. So buying a new OS is useless when there is a COA sticker on the tower and I can just boot the same OS and use that key... but with soooo many different operating systems and service packs out where, I am wondering how yall do this???? What do you guys do, buy every cd to every OS??

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Misso

· #2 · Dec 4, 2009

I do much the same thing, I just have a CD case with a collection of OS's. I find I mostly need XP pro and 32-bit Vista. In relation to the SP's, just get the latest one, that should work shouldn't it?. I also have Windows 7 for myself and a spare XP home edition. It's also handy to have a friend in the IT business, he gives me spare discs that i ask for (obviously not serials) because they get a disc with every serial and dont give the disc to customers.

I havent found a better way. Just lots of discs.

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Brandon H.

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 4, 2009

Thats good, but you must then be in good with someone who has all the cd's. I thought that if the key was with lets say XP Home x32 SP2, then you need the same disk, with the same sevice pack or else the key wont work.

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MrAMD_Fan

· #4 · Dec 4, 2009

The coa sticker on the pc is for the OEM version. Usually comes with the pc, some now are not including the disc and you have to either reload from another partition or call the company and request a disc. For the dells, they have a disc that work with that COA on the pc or laptop. If you get a newer edition of the cd or dvd in the case of vista, it doesn't always accept the key. With the business line, it doesn't ask for a key if you have the cd that comes with the machine (works with XP, not sure about vista).
What i have done for friends and family, is load the OS and the drivers and windows updates and the programs they want, then use my BartPE disk w/ ghost 8 on it and make a ghost image of the OS before giving it back (i hang on the the image, just in case).

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king_play334

· #5 · Dec 5, 2009

I have a CD Case with windows 2000, XP home, XP Pro, OSX, and ubuntu.
another CD Case with: Vista home basic, home premium, business, and ultimate.
and another CD case with: Windows 7 starter, home basic, home premium, professional, and ultimate.

I get the client to buy a OEM copy or whatever they want and just send me the key. or I buy a key with the money they pay me.

I torrented all the Flavors legally becuase none of them are cracked or anything, its just the UNMODDED .ISO files. It comes in better handy if sometimes they forget to pack an OS disk (has happened) or something.

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